By Craig Ray
CAPE TOWN, March 4 - South African all-rounder
Jacques Kallis thought he had missed the world record for the
fastest half century in test cricket, his team mate Mark Boucher
said on Friday.
Kallis slammed 50 off just 24 deliveries against Zimbabwe on
the opening day of the first test at Newlands, eclipsing the
previous mark held by Ian Botham. The England all-rounder had
scored his half century from 26 balls.
"We sent a message to Jacques from the dressing room with
six balls to go but he lost track and thought he had missed it,"
wicketkeeper Boucher said.
However, Kallis had not missed out and reached his 50 with a
six off leg-spinner Graeme Cremer before being caught off the
next ball. His innings included three fours and five sixes.
His exploits helped South Africa to 340 for three at the
close after Zimbabwe had earlier been skittled out for their
lowest test score of 54.
Boucher also reached a milestone by becoming only the third
man to claim 300 test dismissals following Australian pair
Rodney Marsh and Ian Healy.
Fast bowler Makhaya Ntini also joined in in the
record-breaking act by becoming only the third South African to
capture 200 test wickets.
"I'm not really a statistics man (but) I've kept for some
serious bowlers like Allan Donald so it has helped," Boucher
said.
"The green wickets are also helpful to keepers in South
Africa. Perhaps not enough praise is given to keepers on the
sub-continent."
South Africa's first-day lead of 286 was also a world record
in a test, surpassing England's advantage of 233 set against
Australia in 1896.
The poor display by Zimbabwe again brought their test status
credentials into question but captain Tatenda Taibu evaded the
issue.
"Losing our test status has been talked about but there are
some things that are out of our control and that is one of
them," Taibu said.
"We try not to stick our noses into that we are just trying
to play cricket and that's the best thing we can do."
Boucher said that South Africa will now be aiming to win the
match as quickly as possible.
"We were always trying to get our run rate up and if we can
win the test in two or three days all the better because we have
a lot of cricket coming up," Boucher said.
"We owe it to Zimbabwe to go out there and play hard test
cricket although we do sympathise with them because they are
probably shell-shocked sitting in the change room now."
South Africa scored their runs at a fraction under seven
runs an over and in the final session scored a mammoth 249 runs.
"I've told the team not be too down, tomorrow is new day and
we must come out positively," Taibu said.
"We were unlucky today as a lot of balls flew in gaps and
over the slips and with a bit more luck we could have had a few
more wickets."